Sonoco Opens New NC Recycling Plant

Sonoco started commercial operation of a fully automated materials recovery facility that will process curbside-collected and dual-stream residential and commercial recyclable materials from the Raleigh and Wake County, N.C. area.

The 45,000 square foot recycling facility will operate under Sonoco’s wholly owned subsidiary, Paper Stock Dealers, Inc. It will use a computer-automated reclamation processing system that uses customized conveyors, an elliptical sorter, large storage hoppers and a fully automated horizontal baler to automatically separate, store, compact and bale reclaimed newsprint, old corrugated containers and other recycled paper and packaging, aluminum, steel, glass and plastic.

"Sonoco has invested nearly $5 million in developing a fully automated materials recycling facility that the Raleigh area can be proud of," said Myles Cohen, vice president and GM of Sonoco's Recovered Paper Division. "We have been operating Raleigh's MRF for the past 10 years, and the company was recently awarded a new contract to continue reclaiming the community's curbside recyclables. This new facility is replacing two older, less sophisticated facilities that were unable to meet the growing residential and commercial reclamation needs of the Raleigh and Wake County area."

"Our new facility is already improving the efficiency and productivity of Raleigh's curbside recycling program by significantly reducing the time it takes to off-load, process and move recycled materials in and out of the facility," said Marilyn Quattlebaum, director of operations for Sonoco's Recovered Paper Division. "We have the capacity to handle up to 500 million tons annually of residential and commercial recyclable materials. Because of the speed of our automated processing system, we will be able to meet the long-term needs of the Raleigh area as well as be able to offer municipal and commercial reclamation services to communities in nearly a 150 square mile area."